By John L. AaronJuly, 23rd, 2009(Teams Below)The long-awaited
Ed Ahmad Cup replacement tournament gets underway this Saturday in
New York City. Dubbed the NYPL (New York Premier League), the six-team
Twenty20 tourney will feature some of the top players in the New York
metropolitan area, and some “imports” from the Ed Ahmad
Cup which was hit by the harsh economic times now facing the sponsorship
of many sports.

Some
of New York top cricketers will be on display on Saturday,
(pictured top to bottom) Dennis Evans, Andrew Gonsalves, Barrington
Bartley and Abdullah Syed.

The Ed Ahmad
Cup has been the premier cricket tournament in the New York area for
many years, having replaced the former Red Stripe tournament –
an annual fixture on the New York cricket calendar and dating back
to the 80’s. The latter two tournaments have seen a patriotic
level of competition involving representative teams from Barbados,
Guyana, India, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Pakistan, Trinidad &
Tobago, and the Windward Islands, among others.

As 2009 dawned
upon us and the likelihood of no Ed Ahmad Cup this year, New York’s
regional cricket Representative Krish Prasad, successfully led the
charge in securing sponsorship for a replacement tournament –
the NYPL. The major sponsors of the inaugural NYPL are Dave Imports,
Dr. Stanley Sohan, and Stonewall Contracting. With the prize money
expected to top $10,000.00 the tournament is attracting a lot of
attention among players in the metropolitan area, with teams scrambling
to carve the names of premier players into their rosters, and before
the play-offs, since all players must have played in at least one
match prior to the play-off and finals.

One unique feature
of the NYPL is its unrestricted accommodation of any Under-19 player
in the tournament. Thus any player under 19 years old, who was registered
at the commencement of the tournament, will be allowed to participate
in any of the rounds without match restrictions regarding number
of games previously played.

The NYPL is
viewed by many in the New York metro area as the forerunner to a
much larger format Premier League, expected to be conducted in the
USA, and along the lines of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a tournament
that has taken the world by storm and captured the attention of
more than 1.25 billion television viewers around the world.

According to
NYPL Tournament Commissioner Krish Prasad, “This tournament
will generate more buzz, excitement and competitiveness, than the
Ed Ahmad Cup did.” The long-time cricket administrator and
New York Regional Representative on the USA Cricket Association’s
board of directors, was confident that the high tournament expectations
will be met, as is the tradition with the New York style of cricket.

At a standing-room-only
meeting held on Wednesday evening at the Golden Arrow Sports Bar
and Restaurant in Queens; tournament officials, “franchise”
owners, sponsors, umpires, players and supporters hammered out the
last minute details to get the tournament started on Saturday, July
25.

The six teams
registered in the tournament are Singh’s Sporting Goods XI,
New York Titans, Pakistani XI, Bedessee Destroyers, Metro Superstars,
and Cricket Zone Enforcers. Some of the matches will be played at
the newly dedicated cricket ground located at 80th Street and Seaview
Avenue, in Canarsie, Brooklyn.

Opened earlier this summer by several Brooklyn politicos and New
York City Parks personnel, the New York City owned picturesque cricket
field is the perfect setting for such a tournament. Well landscaped
along trendy environmental guidelines and in a family-friendly environment,
the ground was the stage for the recent PSAL championship final
won by Newcomers High School for the second straight year.

There are five
rounds of matches for this inaugural NYPL tournament, with the first
two rounds scheduled, as follows.